For over thirty years, I’ve used a pair of jigs tied up in tandem called the Love’s Lures Tandem Jig with good success and have caught a wide assortment of fish with them. I’ve varied the original rig by tying up my own rigs using an assortment of jig weights with CAL Curly tails. The different weights will control the speed of the fall of the rig. This way, I have better control in fishing different depths, but they work the same way.

Last week, Timmy Meeks, from Bartow, with his 7-year-old son Alex and 7-year-old buddy, Logan, came over for a half-day morning trip. Kids love action, no matter what you’re catching. Neither young angler had ever used spinning gear, and to this point, their experience was mostly with push-button "Spiderman" reels in fresh water for small panfish—so, my main objective on this trip was to keep it interesting, keep some action going, but most of all, keep it fun and entertaining.

We ran out of Terra Ceia into lower Tampa Bay fishing standard CAL Jigs with shad tails. On the beginning of the outgoing tide, they caught trout, flounder, Key West grunts, their first-ever cobia, and juvenile gag grouper. They were having a blast, but what could be more fun? After thinking for a minute, anything that puts a bend in the rod is fun for kids, but what about a rod bending twice as hard? I tied up some tandem rigs and the young anglers started catching two fish at a time! A pair of nice trout came to the boat. Then another pair was a juvenile gag grouper and a black seabass. But maybe it was the pair of jumping ladyfish, or the pairs of lizardfish that struggled against each other, that made their day.

It was all they could do to land one fish, but two fish action was just off the hook! What I do know is, these young anglers were lucky enough to take fish home, and each had smiles that ran from ear to ear while doing it.

Ray Markham runs the Flat Back II out of Terra Ceia and can be reached for charter at (941) 723-2655.